


Career Choices

by Philomytha



Category: Vorkosigan Saga - Lois McMaster Bujold
Genre: Babyfic, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-02
Updated: 2012-10-02
Packaged: 2017-11-15 11:54:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 682
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/527030
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Philomytha/pseuds/Philomytha
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gregor is placed in charge of a baby.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Career Choices

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the tropefic meme, for Lanna Michaels, who asked for Gregor, accidental baby acquisition

"Let Greg do it. It's not like he's much good at anything else." 

Gregor's shoulders slumped a little more. It was one thing, he was discovering, to think these things in the privacy of his own head for years on end, and quite another to hear other people casually saying so, without even bothering to check whether or not he could hear them. Though it had proven to be true, on this voyage. His navigation skills weren't terrible, but they only needed a navigator for about half an hour total, on this simple route, and he had no idea how to do almost any of the other jobs they'd asked of him, and made a botch of all of them. 

"Oh, there you are. Greg, mind the baby, willya? Deirdre needs to get down to the engine room." 

It was a family ship, run by a husband and wife, who took their baby--the result of a contraceptive accident, Sirdar had explained cheerfully, but who were they to argue with fate?--with them on their voyages, trading off minding the little girl amongst the crew. The infant seemed to thrive on the chaos and activity, Gregor had noticed. The contrast with his own childhood in the Imperial Residence was severe. 

"Okay," he said, and extended his arms. Deirdre passed little Matta to him and hurried away, and Gregor supposed he should take the baby somewhere else so as not to be in the way on the bridge. Matta was just learning to crawl, and she wriggled in his arms, burbling to herself. He wiped a bit of drool from her mouth with his sleeve, since he didn't have anything else handy. Lady Alys would have been annoyed with him about that. Well, Lady Alys wasn't here, and he didn't mind at all.

In the rec room, he put Matta down on the friction matting and sat on the floor beside her. "Go on, then. Do your party trick." 

She giggled and rolled over, short plump legs bicycling, then twisted onto her stomach and lifted her head, her back arching so much his own back ached, but she seemed perfectly happy. Then she pulled herself forwards with both hands as if swimming on the floor. Gregor looked around, then put a light-cube on the floor a few steps away from her and flicked it on and off. She reached for it, discovered she wasn't close enough, and squirmed forwards again like a cadet in training slithering under a wire fence. Three more attempts, and she succeeded in grabbing the light-cube. Inevitably, she shoved it into her mouth, and Gregor quickly rescued it and wiped it too on his sleeve. 

"You like that? You like the light? Here, on, off, on, off..." he said, waving the light above her and letting her grab for it. She wiggled into a sitting position, which extended her reach, and caught his slightly damp sleeve. He let her pull his arm down and retrieve the light-cube, though he held it too, and tried to show her how to press the button that operated it, but she didn't have the dexterity or strength for that yet. She banged it against the floor instead, and that, unexpectedly, triggered the switch and it flicked each time she hit it into the floor. She began to laugh, and Gregor found himself laughing too, infected by her pure enthusiasm for this miracle. _Let there be light._

Then she banged it into her own knee and let out a wail. Gregor scooped her up and cuddled her, the reaction instinctive and surprising him, and rubbed her knee, crooning to her--in Russian, he realised, though she didn't seem to mind. He flicked the light on a few more times, and her wails died down, and she reached with rekindled happiness for the cube. 

Gregor watched her play with it, and smiled. Perhaps he'd headed in the wrong direction, when he'd left his gilded cage. Never mind space and the stars and adventures. Perhaps he had a wonderful career ahead of him as a nanny.


End file.
